Cute Mug

Because there was some concern about placenta previa, we had a second ultrasound on Monday. Thankfully, all is well. This ultrasound was such a fun experience for our family. We saw Creegan move a lot and got some great pictures, which wasn't the case the first time around. I love this profile picture because you can see Creeg has my nose, which Eddie also has. It's adorable! Eddie was so interested in the baby and recognized many body parts on his own (like heart and spine), which amazed the technician. Because she was enjoying Eddie so much, she did a 3D ultrasound for us, and we got to see Creegan! He looks so much like Eddie and Peter.
What a cute mug! I love you, Creegan!

Eddie at Four Years Old

Favorite Foods-blueberries, oranges, bagels with cream cheese, crepes, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches . He doesn't eat cereal if there's milk in it, though he often asks for it. For breakfast he wants things that have to be cooked (waffles, pancakes, etc).

Favorite things to do-play firefighter (no matter where we go, if he is playing with other kids, they are almost always playing firefighter; I guess he has some sway with his friends), play package guy (he delivers packages to our door and of course comes in and opens the package for us; he is also the one to pack each package), run, play that he is a worker fixing or building something; he likes to paint, play with playdough, and play with stamps; he's playing with Legos quite a bit right now, but I think that is just because I recently moved them from his closet to a shelf in his bedroom (he's never really been into building that much, unless you are building with him); dance and sing (in the morning when I get up, I often find him sitting on the couch singing his favorite songs; he stops when I come in the room; he mimics the vocal style of the singer of the song, which is really cute and funny); he used to play with trains all the time, but doesn't often do that anymore; he likes rockets, astronauts, and outer space. He likes to play pirates. He and Peter like to pretend that a ghost or a monster or Jesus is in my bedroom, and they have to go see this ghost, monster, Jesus and then run away from him. He and Peter play with cars a lot.

What he wants to be when he grows up-a firefighter. He always wants to know what I am going to be when I grow up. He doesn't believe me when I tell him that I already was a teacher and that I am a Mom and those are the things I wanted and want to be.

Interesting things-
1. Eddie has been an apple juiceaholic for most of his life. He completely gave it up a couple of months ago and won't drink it anymore.
2. We are still waiting for Eddie to sleep through the night. He does sleep through the night about once a month. Usually, though, he gets up and gets in bed with us. If we wake up we take him back to his bed, unless it's 5 a.m. or later.
3. Eddie's favorite person in the world is his "mom that lives far away". He is referring to my mom, but don't tell him that she is my mom because he gets upset (she is his mom!). He also calls her "grandma with the silly car" because she drives a yellow VW Beettle. He talks about her every day. He loves writing her letters and talking to her on the phone. Admittedly I have felt jealous about his feelings for her (occasionally he cries because he misses her so much), but I am so happy, really. My biggest fear about moving far from family was that my kids wouldn't have a good relationship with my mom. While we don't see her a lot, Eddie definitely loves her so much!
4. At the library Eddie firsts runs to the nonfiction kids books. He likes books about anything, but his favorite books are about the human body.
5. He is interested in the sounds each letter makes.
6. He asks us every morning what we dreamed that night and tells us his dreams, very few of which he actually dreamed. Usually he adopts our dreams and repeats them and says they are his.

Favorite TV shows-He's watching a lot less tv than he used to. He's just not that interested. Recently he has enjoyed watching Phineas and Ferb. It's fun that he can explain to me who's who and what's going on. He doesn't seem to like the shows geared at younger kids so much anymore. He still likes Fireman Sam. He LOVES watching Minute to Win It and Wipeout, both gameshows. Afterwards we play and play games like the ones on the shows.

Favorite songs-Look for a post coming soon about his first mixed cd to find out some of his favorites.

Favorite books-Right now he is into "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Gus, the Pilgrim Turkey" by Teresa Bateman, "Everything I Know about Pirates" by Tom Lichtenheld, and "Otis" (a tractor book) by Loren Long

Edison's Fourth Birthday

What a perfect day Eddie's birthday was this year. The day before we made Eddie's rocket cake. He chose a chocolate cake with red frosting. I was worried we wouldn't be able to make the frosting look truly red. I told him it might take a lot of food coloring. I then turned my back for half a second while he poured in all the red food coloring we had (3/4 of a bottle). And it was red!!

Eddie chose candy corns and M&Ms for decorating the cake. He thought the candy corns would make a good nose (notice the two "noses" standing up on the nose of the rocket) and good fire coming out the back of the rocket. Good idea.

Eddie was so excited for his birthday this year that he couldn't go to sleep the night before. He literally couldn't hold still. So we had two late nights in a row (July 4th and July 5th); July 6 is not good timing a birthday! He was up on his birthday at 6:30a.m., bouncing on our bed and on me.

When we got up at 7, he ate his standard piece of birthday cake for breakfast (I've always had a cupcake out for them first thing on their birthday; we put a candle in it and sing. This year it was just an edge of cake we'd cut off from the rocket.). Then he didn't know what to do with himself while he waited for Peter to wake up. We decided to make his favorite breakfast-crepes. We had blueberries, his favorite fruit, to go with them. Of course, he mainly ate chocolate chips with his.
After breakfast he got to open his presents first thing. We didn't do this at my house growing up, but it seems like a good idea for kids. This way they can play with their new presents all day. He asked Ben to help him open his presents. Of course that only lasted for the first gift.
He got his first mixed cd! It's full of songs that he's loved throughout his life. Later I will post what they are.
He got walkie talkies. This gift was Ben's idea, and it is perfect for our little Eddie firefighter. Peter's excited about them, too, though he can't figure out how to push the button while talking.
His presents were wrapped in this really cute robot wrapping paper that I was excited about. Eddie didn't comment on it, but Peter did.
He also got this cool rocket and space station that he and Peter love, love, love! Much arguing ensued on who got to play with it. Luckily they have calmed down about it. Peter probably plays with it more, but when Eddie wants it Peter plays with the smaller rocket we already had.
We told Eddie he could choose something fun to do that day. We had a few ideas in mind, in case he needed help, but he came up with Chuck E Cheese on his own. We haven't been there in a year, and he has never asked to go there this past year. Ben had signed Eddie up for their birthday club last year, so we get free coins each year around his birthday. So it worked out perfectly. Peter loved Chuck E Cheese this time around. He ran around and checked out each and every game. He loved running around the tables in the animatronics area; it was like a maze to him. He loved riding "race cars" and playing games, especially one where he had to hit a button that made balls fly into a dogs mouth. He also liked air hockey. Ben went around with Eddie, so I know less about what he liked. We actually earned enough tickets to buy something-candy!
We had to convince Eddie that he didn't want to eat at Chuck E Cheese. It wasn't too hard; we only had to mention Steak & Shake and he was excited. We live right by one, and he always wants to go. We so seldom do that this was a special birthday treat.
Eddie wanted a shake in a big glass, and how could we say no on his birthday? His favorite kind of icecream hasn't changed, mint chocolate chip. He loves the cherry on top!

My friend had called that morning to see if they could come over and swim that afternoon. That sounded fun to Eddie, so after lunch we went swimming at our pool with his friend Jefferson. She brought a fun pool toy, a penguin that swims and dives all over the pool. Eddie loved it and was sad he didn't get to keep it. "Jeff-er-rey" (how Eddie says her name) did bring him a present, though, which was really kind. Eddie loved the fake snake. We invited her to eat cake with us.
Eddie asked at the end of our singing if that was the end of the song before blowing out his candles both times we sang to him today.
After cake we were all exhausted. We had a simple dinner, that I don't think E and P hardly ate. Then we went to bed. Eddie fell asleep so fast! It was a really perfect day for our whole family! Happy four years old, Eddie! We love you!

July 4, 2010

This Fourth of July Ben wanted to avoid the crowd of the actual fireworks, so we set ourselves up at a strip mall across the street from the park where the fireworks were to be set off.
We arrived early and had plenty of time to play and have fun. Eddie and Peter especially loved eating candy (I happened upon a hidden stash of Easter candy before we left for the fireworks!) and running around on the grass. They also met a new little friend named Spencer that they had lots of fun with.
We lit our first sparklers that our fireworks neighbors gave to us. They freaked E and P out at first, but eventually E held his own.
When the show finally started, we were disappointed to learn that our view was almost totally blocked by a big tree. We saw the fireworks that went up really high; that was about it. Peter watched from Dad's shoulders for a minute before he realized they weren't really worth it. Then he laid on the blanket (or played with passing dogs) until it was time to go home. The good news is no one was scared of the fireworks this year.

Overall we had fun. Despite all my complaining about tired kids on July 5, I am sure we will go again next year. Though, we will not be going to this same strip mall!